The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s chairman, Dr Rajendra Pachaur, told the British newspaper the Observer that if people want to reduce global warming, they should stop eating meat on a daily basis.

According to Pachaur, diet change is important ‘because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems – including habitat destruction – associated with rearing cattle and other animals.’

Compared to other ways to reduce global warming, he added, it is relatively easy to change eating habits.

Being a vegetarian himself, Pachaur called on citizens of the world to eat meat six, not seven days a week. “In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,” said Pachauri. “Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there,” the Indian economist said.

Eating less meat would not be a bad idea for most Westerners; in Britain, the average citizen eats  50g of protein from meat a day. That is the equivalent to a chicken breast and a lamb chop. Although that sounds much, it is (significantly) less than citizens of most other Western, developed countries eat.

Still, though, it is 25-50% ‘more than World Heath Organisation guidelines,’ meaning that the British – like most Westerners – eat too much meat for their own good.

The question then becomes whether the government should force people to eat less meat or not. Professor Robert Watson, the chief scientific adviser for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, said ‘government could help educate people about the benefits of eating less meat, but it should not ‘”regulate”. “Eating less meat would help, there’s no question about that, but there are other things,” Watson said.’

Chris Lamb, head of marketing for pig industry group BPEX, however, disagreed with the United Nations assessment and Professor Watson. “Climate change is a very young science and our view is there are a lot of simplistic solutions being proposed,” he said probably remembering a report by the Food Climate Research Network at Surrey University that claimed that ‘vegetarian diets that included lots of milk, butter and cheese would probably not noticeably reduce emissions because dairy cows are a major source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas released through flatulence.’